Nevil Macready

Nevil Macready (7 May 1862-9 January 1946) was a General of the British Army who fought in World War I and the Irish War of Independence, leading British forces in Ireland from 1920 to 1921.

Biography
Nevil Macready was born in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, England on 7 May 1862, and he joined the British Army in 1881. Macready fought at Tel el-Kebir in Egypt in 1882 and in South Africa during the Second Boer War of 1899-1902, being breveted a Lieutenant-Colonel in 1900. In 1909, he was promoted to Brigadier-General, and he became Adjutant-General of the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) at the start of World War I. Macready was promoted to full General in 1918, and he became Commissioner of Police in August 1918. In 1920, he was appointed commander-in-chief in Ireland, and he led British Army and Royal Irish Constabulary forces during the Irish War of Independence. Macready was a brutal man, allowing for the "Blacks and Tans" auxiliaries to carry out atrocities against civilians and suggesting that the Irish delegation to the signing of a peace treaty in 1921 should be arrested. In 1923, Macready retired from the army, and he died in 1946 at the age of 83.